Last-mile networks
Community networks and rural coverage.
Focus — Mobility, Energy & Essential Infrastructure — Digital connectivity
DIGITAL CONNECTIVITY
IDEAS WE SUPPORT.
World Seed Fund supports people whose ideas improve network coverage and its affordability for the households and institutions without usable connectivity.
Why this area
DIGITAL CONNECTIVITY
IN CONTEXT.
Coverage without affordability is not access. Ideas qualify when both the network and the price to the user are addressed.
Scope of the area
WHAT THIS AREA
INCLUDES.
Illustrations of scope, not a fixed list. If your idea belongs here but is not described below, introduce it anyway.
Affordability
What data actually costs a household.
Backhaul & power
What keeps a network up.
Public access
Shared connectivity at schools, clinics, and centres.
Criteria to qualify
WHAT A DIGITAL CONNECTIVITY
IDEA MUST SHOW.
All five criteria apply. An idea does not need to be complete or proven — it needs to be specific enough that we can judge it, and grounded enough that a next step is possible.
A defined problem, in a defined place
We need to understand exactly who is affected, where, and how they cope today. General statements about a global challenge are not enough to qualify.
- Names the place, community, or system where network coverage and its affordability fall short.
- States the situation today in plain terms — coverage, uptime, cost per gigabyte, or active users.
- Explains what the households and institutions without usable connectivity do now, and what it costs them.
Human insight behind the idea
The idea should come from knowledge of the situation — technical, scientific, operational, cultural, or lived — rather than from an assumption about it.
- Draws on direct knowledge of network coverage and its affordability in that place.
- Accounts for why earlier coverage and public access programmes did not hold here.
- Was shaped with the households and institutions without usable connectivity, not only for them.
A credible next step
There must be a specific thing that can be attempted next, at a scale that can be observed honestly, with a stated way of judging whether it worked.
- A defined pilot with a stated size — sites, households connected, or institutions covered.
- A stated measure of success — coverage, uptime, cost per gigabyte, or active users.
- A timeframe within which the result can be judged honestly.
Value for people and place
The benefit should be meaningful to the community or system the idea serves, and describable in terms they would recognise.
- Improves access to services, learning, work, and contact for the households and institutions without usable connectivity.
- The benefit is described in words the community itself would use.
- Does not shift cost, risk, or harm onto neighbouring people or systems.
A path to keep working
Ideas qualify when someone can plausibly own, operate, fund, and repair the result after the first phase of support ends.
- A named community network operator, ISP, or authority able to carry the work after the first phase.
- Running costs, materials, and skills obtainable near the work.
- Ownership, permission, or agreement that lets the work continue.
Evidence & boundaries
WHAT HELPS,
AND WHAT DOES NOT.
Evidence can be modest. A careful account of a small trial is worth more than a projection.
Evidence we look for
- Any observation, record, or measurement of network coverage and its affordability in that place.
- Costs, materials, or time recorded from a small trial, however modest.
- Notes, letters, or agreements from the households and institutions without usable connectivity or the community network operator, ISP, or authority.
Usually outside this area
- Broad proposals about digital connectivity with no named place and no named people.
- Equipment or funding requests with no operator and no running cost.
- Work that transfers cost, risk, or harm to neighbouring people or systems.
Submit an idea
INTRODUCE YOUR
DIGITAL CONNECTIVITY IDEA.
There is no application window and no required format. Answer these four questions in your own words and we will read them.
Who is affected, where, and how do they manage today?
What do you know about network coverage and its affordability that others working on it may not?
What could you attempt next, and how would you judge whether it worked?
Who continues the work afterwards, and what keeps it running?
Human potential is everywhere. Opportunity should be too.